Massachusetts is Winding the Future

Chicago may be known as the Windy City, but as of May 18, Boston is home to the largest commercial wind blade test facility in the world. The Wind Technology Testing Center at the Boston Autoport in Boston Harbor is open for business. To produce more power from the wind, manufacturers have been creating longer and longer blades, but until now, all blades longer than 50 meters had to be shipped to European facilities to be tested.

Now that the Wind Technology Testing Center is up and running, companies can test the next generation of wind blade technology—up to 90 meters long. When selecting Massachusetts for the Wind Technology Testing Center in 2007, the DOE pledged $2 million for the project. In 2009, the department awarded Massachusetts an additional $25 million in funding from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, now part of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, contributed an additional $13.2 million in grants and loans. See the Energy Blog post.